To bring this thread up to date:
1. I rode 130 miles, Boston to Provincetown, a couple times on this bike. It's amazing! It really helped me rediscover the joy of distance riding. It was perfect for the covid shutdown and that whole period of very chill traffic in the boston area. I learned a lot about my cycling preferences, using this Trek as a prototype to test things out. It's the first bike I've had that's really worked with me - since maybe my mom's Raleigh Pro I rode when I was 14 or so.
2. My fork broke in June 2021, but I am fine. The VO rack actually held things together!
Full thread here.
Cliffs notes pics here:
3. I made a new fork and indented the stays for 650x48 tires, took the bike for one ride, and discovered the head tube is also broken.
Full documentation here, the thread starts out with someone else's failure that is exactly the same as mine.
Pics of broken headtube:
It is a one-piece headtube, which is probably why it broke. It appears that the crack was caused by a stress-riser related to the forming of a faux-lug in the one-piece headtube, and also the depth and size of the boring that had been done on it. Why did they bore it so deep, if all they needed was to accommodate the headset cup?
Now I am ordering some lugs and a headtube to replace it!
What a mess!!
I wonder if the bike will feel really stiff after I've fixed all the cracks!
At least I'll have learned how to replace tubes, by the time this all is over.